


Friend of the Stones

by psyluna



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Depressing as fuck, Descent into Madness, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Loneliness, Mental Breakdown, Prison, Starving, Talking to Oneself, You Have Been Warned, please read the tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:40:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24246661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psyluna/pseuds/psyluna
Summary: Inside a prison cell in Targoviste, Lisa questions her sanity as she talks to an inanimate friend.English version ofAmiga das Pedras.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 10





	Friend of the Stones

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Amiga das Pedras](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24246418) by [psyluna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/psyluna/pseuds/psyluna). 



> Hi, folks. How's everyone? This short story is another case of getting this thing out of my system.
> 
> I dearly ask that you DO MIND THE TAGS of this story. I might be making a fuss about it, since there's no graphic violence, but Lisa is not okay here and everything is NOT going to be all right. This follows the canon and we all know what happens to her.
> 
> This is a translation from Brazilian Portuguese. It might contain mistakes and unnatural-sounding sentences. Please warn me about them in the comment section.
> 
> Have a nice read, if possible. Proceed with caution.

The guard slammed the heavy iron door and turned the key in the lock on the other side. Lisa stared at the moldy piece of stale bread on the floor, one that resembled a rock covered in moss. She did not look forward to eating it; she could not, not yet. Enjoying the scarce light that came from the window, if so she could call the fret near the ceiling, she looked at her hands and was sure that her fingers were thinner.

How long had it been? How many days? Something between fifteen and thirty. She had spent some of them awake, with red eyes wide open, feeling as if sand was in them. On other days, she had slept for so long that her bones against the floor were creaking.

In the cell, there was no more furniture than an old rag for a blanket and the already empty waste bucket. The rag was too short for her to wrap up with it. She had to choose between covering herself and sleeping against the cold stones or lining the floor with it and spending the night uncovered. More than dignity, they had taken the good clothes from her. What she wore seemed closer to a potato sack with holes for head and arms. Perhaps it was indeed a potato sack.

She stood up to stretch her back, previously arched to hug onto herself. If she put her hands in the air, she would easily touch the roof full of drips. So she did, with her digits still sensitive from the burning and a nail or another growing back. She felt like still having all her fingers was a stroke of luck; as she was caught red-handed, she had not taken long to confess the crime of treating the ill and saving lives.

The most vivid thing she had to do besides dreaming was whispering to the walls. After some days, she found out she had a neighboring cell, containing a scraggy man she could see through a hole between two blocks. He would mutter even at night, which would sweep away Lisa’s chances of sleeping. It took less than seven passings of the sun by the fret for her to start doing the same, going quiet when she heard the gate and the guard’s footsteps.

It could be worse, it could be way worse, she said with a big smile, facing where the ceiling and the wall met. I could’ve had a pierced eye. A hot spike in my belly. Some broken bones. What even are my peeling palms and my poorly cut hair in comparison?

There were also days where she did no more than crying. The day of the moldy bread that looked like a mossy rock was not one of them. It was a day for talking. The bars of the window might have been already tired of her nonsense, so she left them alone. The door was no good company since it brought the guard and the gross food. He did not even have the goodwill to give her the damn bread in her hand… Well, nevermind him. She would talk. Lisa closed her eyes and pointed her index finger, spinning it in the air until she chose a specific stone.

“Good evening. How’s it going on the wall? Are you a lady or a gentleman?”

Lisa examined the grey surface, caressing it with the tip of her finger. It was a rough stone, a parallelepiped like the others. What did it say?

“A lady, are you? Like me?” Lisa took the finger away from the stone. “Great! A chat between women. It’s what I needed. Sometimes, men don’t have the good takes I want to hear. Nor the good ears.”

The chosen stone was about in the middle of the wall, not so close to the floor. Lisa sat with her legs crossed, using the strength of her arms to bend her rusty knees. She sat to look at the eyes that her cellmate did not have.

“Can I give you a name? I believe you don’t happen to have one…” She stared at the parallelepiped and noticed a cross scribbled on it. “Oh. The previous dweller named you? Could I have the honor of knowing it? Maria, the mother of Jesus. Hence the cross. That was a good choice.

Lisa cleaned her throat, feeling it sore. She went quiet to check if the gate would sound, an approach of the guard, or something else. Her murmurs were the only ones in that evening.

“So, you heard me talk yesterday? It was like that in Lupu as well. People take care of each other’s lives a lot. A tiny little place, but one can’t deny their roots, isn’t it? I bet you were born in a beautiful rock. I’d love to pay a visit.” Lisa smiled at the stone. “I would leave a flower if you like flowers. There are gorgeous daffodils in my garden back home. I used them to treat pinkeyes. Your hometown rock would maybe accommodate one of my daffodils. That’d be if they didn’t burn them all. People don’t respect anyone nowadays. Not even flowers.”

Lisa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You know, Maria. For stones like you, there’s no such thing as a beginning, a middle, and an end. Stone doesn’t exactly die, I know quite well. At most, one can transform stone in more stones. However, for us humans, the end is a matter to address. All that’s living will die in a moment. It happens to all of us. All of us! And would you look at me, a specialist on cheating death? That’s why I’m here. Can you believe it?”

Lisa sighed. “Of course I’d rather be somewhere else. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like you’re a bad company. It’s just that you have neighbors the same shape and material as you, and these neighbors are enclosing me here. I could take you with me if I were to be gone. You’d be my lovely door weight.”

Lisa let her body slowly descend until she laid down on the floor, facing the ceiling, her hands crossed on her chest.

“How can I say… Yes, I’ve cursed her, but think with me. If it wasn’t me here, it could be her in my place. No matter if it was jealousy from her, or to save her ass, that says more about her than about me, don’t you think? Maybe we’re set to meet in Hell, then she’ll owe me an apology or two.” Lisa laughed. “Yes, I do believe in Hell. I just can’t say that I’m a good Christian.”

She heard the beginning of rainfall hitting the wall. The water would become a puddle in the middle of the cell in no time. Lisa dragged herself to the driest corner, where the right wall and the door wall met. She wrapped up in the worthless rag, going back to hugging her knees.

“Maria, what’s it like not to feel cold? I know that stones like you are cold most of the time, but how does it feel not shivering when the wind goes by?” Lisa stared at the ceiling. “What is it like receiving sunlight without the burning? Not needing clothes and shoes? You know, maybe I should reincarnate as a stone in my next life and try it out. Do you have a soul?”

She looked at the parallelepiped curiously. “I see, it’s not really a ‘soul’ in the traditional sense. Well, so, I can’t come back as a stone, I guess. Too bad.”

Lisa felt a stomach ache and rescued the bread from the rain before it got wet. Holding it with both hands, she closed her eyes, hoping to open them and finding a mulled wine mug to take away the shivering. As she opened them again, she did not find more than the cell. Would it be enough hunger to eat? She did not offer a piece to Maria; she would not accept, anyway. The first bite was dry and brought crumbs to her tongue, feeling like bitter sand.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Lisa spoke with a full mouth, “but this thing makes me feel like I’m eating a stone. No, don’t get it wrong, not granite like you. It’s way… crumbier. I don’t really know much of rocks to know the exact type.”

She bit the bread again, a bigger, hungrier one to pacify her stomach ache. Maybe the bitterness of the mold was a complex flavor, an acquired taste. They said it of some cheeses, right? And also some people. Lisa finished the bread almost licking the crumbs off of her fingers. A drink to finish was a good take, and the water from the drip tasted better than the one on the floor. She put the cracked cup under the drops.

“Can I even dig with this thing, Maria? I’ve heard of many prisoners that fled from jail using spoons. Now, cups?” Lisa frowned.

A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky for a moment and the thunder made her turn her head to the window. A gust carried more of the rain to the fret, and the water hit Lisa’s face.

“Not by chance, I’m in need of a bath, but I actually didn’t ask for this.” She cleaned her eyes with her right hand. “My kingdom for a good hot bathtub. And now, I think I have some water.”

Lisa got her cup back from under the drip and appreciated the drink, with her mouth dry from the crumby bread. The water the guard brought once a day tasted like salt and rust. The rainwater was no cleaner, she knew that, but at least it did not seem that bad.

“Maria, I’m going to ask a question, and I’d like you to answer honestly.” Lisa left the cup under the drip again. “Do you think I’m mad?”

Lisa stared at Maria’s wall, trying to identify something in her rock silence.

“Because I… I think I might be. There are times where I see things. Places and people. I hear sounds, voices that can’t be here. Would a sane person even talk to you?”

Lisa waited a moment then laughed as loud as she could, muffling it not to echo in the cell. “Why ‘it depends’?”

She stared at the parallelepiped with intrigue and a cunning smile.

“You’re right. It’s just natural to the human mind to try and fill in the blanks. The void. The silence. Is that what I’ve been doing, then? Filling in?”

Lisa lowered her eyes to the floor and let the air escape her lungs. “How many people have you seen leave this place, Maria?”

She hugged herself tighter, feeling a trembling shiver when the wind blew the window to bring more rain. The cubicle was already dark, just like the night would be.

“This door is open every single day. And every single day, the time approaches. I don’t know when it is, it just does. And I… I don’t want them to remember me as the madwoman. As the woman that talked to stones. I’ve been many other things. Many other…” Lisa’s voice failed her. It was no day for crying. “Please, bear my secret. Please. I… I had so many things I wanted to do. So, so many…”

When the first tear was shed, her fist hit the water puddle in a punch. The palm of her left hand burned as it touched the nails she still had, and the ones she did not have hurt like needles piercing. It was not long before she began sobbing and shaking with all of her thin body.

“I want to wake up, Maria. To wake up and find out I was dreaming. In my bedroom. In my bed, in my house in Lupu. With my husband back. With my son in the living room. I…”

_ I don’t want to die. _ Lisa’s breath was harder and harder as if she drowned.  _ I don’t want to. I don’t. I don’t! Why can’t I set myself free? Why am I so weak? _

Lisa let her head fall to her knees and hugged her body with her arms again. The cell seemed colder than ever. 

**Author's Note:**

> I must admit that writing this thing was hard and I ended up deleting a lot of irrelevant parts before posting. I hope it turned out... good? See you next time.


End file.
